Identifying opportunities to ask patients about their treatment wishes

Here is a challenging ethical case study about a women who when faced with multiple complications wondered if she could go on. Without specific information on her wishes, an ethical situation ensued when she became unresponsive with combined cardiac, renal, respiratory, and infective complications from cardiac bypass surgery and chronic COPD. Part I describes this case submitted by DCCN readers and Part 2 provides a case analysis by an ethical consultant with suggestions for nurses in similar situations.